Reasonable prices, plenty of choice, early opening times (you can start drinking at 9am) and clean and tidy décor.

The main difference is that you have to drive to get there. So if you’re the designated driver, the most you can drink booze-wise is a pint of weak beer – and some say even that is too much before heading off on the motorway.

Sitting at a table in the £1.1million pub, at junction two of the M40 in Beaconsfield, Bucks, JD Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon said he “totally understood” why there were concerns.

“I think if you have the words ‘motorway service area’ and ‘pub’, you’d be naive to think that people wouldn’t have an argument against it,” he said.

“I think if you have the words ‘motorway service area’ and ‘pub’, you’d be naive to think that people wouldn’t have an argument against it”

Eddie Gershon

“Our argument would be we’re a responsible pub company, we sell responsibly, and customers have to act responsibly as well. Food is a massive part of what we do now and we would expect the majority of sales to be food and non-alcoholic drinks.

“We’re not hiding the fact that we sell alcohol, we’re very open about it.

“If someone comes in and has a pint of beer and enjoys that pint of beer we say ‘good for you’.

“We don’t have zero tolerance in this country. People can legally drink a certain amount and not be over the limit.”

On its first day scores of people come through the doors just before lunchtime for a refreshment break.

Guy Taylor, 50, and wife Linda, 40, both had a pint of Kronenbourg with breakfast before driving 108 miles home to Hereford.

Guy said: “We don’t live in a nanny state and people should be grown up enough to know what’s going on.”

Brian Russell, from Walsall, is a huge Wetherspoon fan and drove 100 miles to the chain’s pub – the 300th he’s visited. But despite enjoying his drink, he said: “I’d prefer it not to be here because if I was driving just as a normal driver and came here I’d see the temptation.”

His views are echoed by alcohol charities. Eric Appleby of Alcohol Concern said: “Selling alcohol on our motorways sends all the wrong signals to drivers. It sounds like profits being put before sense.

“Campaigners have worked tirelessly to improve road safety in the UK and persuade people that drinking and driving don’t mix and this feels like a backward step.”

Sir Ian Gilmore, chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance, added: “It has the potential to undo all the good that has been done in drink-driving campaigns.”

I can see both sides of the argument, but after a pint of Fosters at £3.75 and a burger and chips for £5.39 (including a free soft drink), I felt refreshed and perfectly safe getting back into my car.

It’s all a matter of being sensible – and it was also nice not getting ripped off at a service station!